Strong Towns Events Inspiring Change Across the Country
Photo from one of our many events in Santa Rosa, CA
It's been a busy year. Strong Towns spoke in over 50 cities in the US and Canada, from tiny rural hamlets to midsize suburbs to large cities—east, west, north and south. The Strong Towns message reached all over the continent. Here are a few success stories about the impact of that message on the ground.
After you've had a chance to read about the impact Strong Towns is making across the country, please support our vision for a better America by becoming a member of Strong Towns today.
Santa Rosa, CA
One of our first events this year was a visit to Santa Rosa, CA for an extended event partnering with Urban3. About a month after the event, we received an email from a Santa Rosa-based journalist who informed us that Strong Towns' ideas were "alive and well." He wrote:
“The Strong Towns/Urban3 legacy in Santa Rosa is very much alive and well; I see the new City Manager, Sean McGlynn, is embracing your ideas [...] The urban growth boundary advocates and the open space corridor fans also applaud your concepts for urban infill. More buffer zones are on the ballot for expansion this fall (surrounding present urban growth boundaries) and the SMART train is scheduled to debut. [...Chuck Marohn] and Joe Minicozzi made a great, positive impression on our community with lasting effects.”
The Iron Range, MN
Strong Towns hosted an extended Curbside Chat+ for a week in May on the Minnesota Iron Range, a region of northeastern Minnesota. Event participants were surveyed before and after each presentation about their thoughts on the economic future of the Iron Range, federal and state assistance, infrastructure spending, and local business growth. The results were very positive. Here's just one example:
See all our survey results here. In addition to the event audiences responding positively to the Strong Towns message and understanding its application in their community, several local news outlets covered our events on the Iron Range, extending the reach of our message even further.
Edina, MN
Strong Towns was invited to Edina, MN in September for a one-day event that proved to be very impactful, in large part, because of a new medium that was used to broadcast the event. The City of Edina took it upon themselves to live-stream three of Chuck Marohn's walking tours around Edina via Facebook Live. This meant that residents in Edina as well as across the country who were unable to attend the talk could still partake virtually. You can watch all the videos here. And this year, we had the chance to share several other videos of Chuck's talks in action as well.
Shreveport, LA
Just a couple weeks ago, Strong Towns hosted a series of events in Shreveport, LA which touched several different communities in the area and addressed important issues for Shreveport. Afterward, the director of the Downtown Shreveport Development Authority was moved to write a column for her local paper discussing the event and explaining the Strong Towns message in terms of her town. One of the most meaningful parts of Chuck Marohn's time in Shreveport was attending a community meeting about a new highway that's being proposed in an urban neighborhood. We plan to follow this story and help fight against that highway in the coming months.